The invention relates to tray assemblies suitable for a child to use for eating while seated in a back seat of a car.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,625,161 issued on Dec. 7, 1971 describes one such seat back tray assembly. That assembly includes laterally spaced U-shaped inverted hooks with respective depending legs. The U-shaped inverted hooks engage the top of the seat back and the depending legs extend in laterally spaced parallel relationship along the back of the automobile seat. The apparatus includes a telescoping oblique strut to support the tray member. The apparatus disclosed is nominally collapsible, however, the procedure for achieving the collapse of the mechanism can not be achieved rapidly. Thus, the mechanism presents some safety hazard because, in the event of an automobile crash, the passenger located behind the tray assembly is exposed to impact with the tray assembly and potentially serious injury.
It is an object of the present invention to provide apparatus that will reduce the risks to passengers seated behind such tray assemblies.
Another object of the invention is to provide a tray assembly that will be easy and relatively inexpensive to manufacture.
It has now been found that these and other objects of the invention may be attained in a tray assembly for mounting on an automobile front seat to permit a user to sit on the back seat to safely utilize the tray assembly that includes a slip fit structure that will come apart in response to a forward force. The preferred embodiments include first and second inverted generally U-shaped hooks. Each of the hooks has first and second legs. Each of the first legs extends along a front face of the front seat and each of the second legs extend along the rear face of the front seat. First and second laterally spaced cross members extend between the second legs of the generally U-shaped members along the rear face of the front seat. A generally rectangular tray has one side hinged to one of the cross members. Oblique supports extend from spaced parts of a second side of the generally rectangular tray that is opposed to the one side to the respective second legs of the first and second inverted generally U-shaped members. Slip fit means couple the oblique supports to the second side of the rectangular tray.
In some forms of the invention, the second side of the generally rectangular tray includes eye shaped elements dimensioned and configured for engagement with respective oblique supports. The slip fit means may include the upper axial extremity of each of the oblique supports having a shoulder for cooperation with one of the eye shaped elements and the upper axial extremity of each of the oblique supports may include a rounded surface that is tapered downwardly toward the associated second seat to ensure release upon impact by a forward force in the direction of the associated first seat.